A ‘murder mystery’ play that is so left-field of its genre, that by the end, it does a complete 360-degree – with a lot of bumps and barges along the way.
Playing at the Birmingham Hippodrome 'The Play That Goes Wrong' tells the story of Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society’s ‘Murder At Haversham Manor’ - while well established in its narrative – was refreshingly unique in its execution as everything that can go wrong, went brilliantly wrong.
With its Crossroads-esqe fragile and (in this case deliberately) wobbly sets their ‘Murder At Haversham Manor’ was a complete joy to watch – especially as its execution by its young, vibrant and ‘on-the-ball’ cast was so spot-on.
From the minute it was introduced by the arrogance and self-abasement Henry Shields, you knew were going to go on a ‘bumpy ride’ that, so much so, would leave Agatha Christie herself in the dark although chuckling in the aisles.
A typically Christie-style country-house whodunnit, but, in this case, you could well be leaving the theatre typically questioning; ‘Who actually did what?’
Such confusion, which began with the corpse of Charles - who couldn’t lie still – as a line-up of suspects; which included cast and crew, who so brilliantly put together this offbeat and very often very physical slapstick satire.
